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How would YOU schedule the next 3-4 years?

With the talk regarding NYTF 2013 reveals, and the potential surprises (beasts, vehicles, multi-packs, add-on subs, etc.), and the overall talk of the line wrapping up (in terms of the core figures)...I tried to come up with a schedule that attempted to hit as many requested figures as possible. I set up 2014-2016 to have the exact same skus as 2013 (12 monthly, 4 quarterly items, and a sub exclusive). I included a 6-figure add-on sub (Filmation), a SDCC item, and a traveling exclusive. This is what I came up with...

@ King Tamusk: I don't see the line going this far... still I like your optimism and think that your fictional line-up is pretty cool!

I just wish we get so many fan demanded characters in 2013 and 2014.

Don't know who's coming in 2013, but I could imagine the following characters to be released for the rest of the year:Filmation Hordak and Imp, Madame Razz and Broom, Hydron, Castaspella, Lord Dactys, NA Skeletor, Horde Troopers (with General Sunder's parts), Sea Hawk.

As for 2014, I would like or guess they'll have to include some of the following characters (in no particular orders, though I guess they'll have to keep some big shots for the first three months if they want to sell the sub after SDCC 2013 lol):

This could be a way to make the next two years pretty strong and at the same time giving fans some of the most wanted characters in 2014 (just in case there is not enough demand for MOTUC beyond 2014).

In 2012 I made my own Road Map that went all the way through 2020. My road map wasn't so much about which specific characters would be in each year but more about what type of line up I would expect to see in terms of character selection in a given 12 month subscription period (brand, factions, source material, etc). The idea for 2013-2016 was to have each year have a pretty even mix where each of those four years you'd see all the factions represented and a good balance of both a and b list characters. For just the 13 regular figure spots (just the 12 regular monthly figures plus the 1 sub exclusive--I dealt with oversize, quarterly and con figures separately) the yearly breakdown/recipe basically went like this:

1 Heroic Warrior (vintage figure)
1 Evil Warrior (vintage figure)
1 Horde member (2 of those years would have gone to the 2 remaining standard vintage figures, 1 would have gone to Entraptra and 1 would have gone to a Filmation Horde character).
1 Snake Man (after you do the last 3 remaining vintage snake figures this category would go either wild card or would go to characters like the Snake Goddess).
1 A-list vintage POP character
1 B-list vintage POP character
1 Galactic Protector (vintage)
1 Space Mutant (vintage)
1 Filmation character from the He-Man cartoon
1 Filmation character from the She-Ra cartoon
1 MYP character
2 Wild Card spots - ideally for mini comic, concept, jetlag or other miscellaneous characters

I'd set up my formula this way so each year between 2013-2016 would feel somewhat equally strong and diverse. I know a lot of people want all of their favorite faction right away, but honestly if Mattel was to do that this line would be even more likely to die off quickly. In my opinion the best way to keep the line going year after year so that every body can get their favorite factions complete is to try to keep things more balanced so that you never reach a point where you've fully completed one part of the collection (ie vintage Masters) but are still years away from completing a still wanted but typically less demanded faction (ie New Adventures). With this road map I created I felt like character selection would stay really strong all the way through 2016. Come 2017 there would have been a bit of a drop off as far as character selection is concerned since you'd be all out of vintage Horde and Snake Men and the only remaining POP would be a couple of B-listers. But still you'd have enough vintage Masters to either hurry up and wrap up all the Vintage figures in 2017 or to keep spacing them out with more Filmation, NA, mini comic, etc characters all the way through 2019 or 2020.

It could be coincidence but so far with 8 of the regular monthly figures and the sub exclusive revealed 2013 is matching up exactly with my road map. If it sticks to my prediction then that means we'll see the following for the 4 yet to be revealed 2013 monthly spots:

Of course the real test would have been to see if 2014 would have matched up too, but now that subs are down and 2014 has broken off from the original plan to be all heavy hitters that could end up tossing out my entire road map predictions.

In 2012 I made my own Road Map that went all the way through 2020. My road map wasn't so much about which specific characters would be in each year but more about what type of line up I would expect to see in terms of character selection in a given 12 month subscription period (brand, factions, source material, etc). The idea for 2013-2016 was to have each year have a pretty even mix where each of those four years you'd see all the factions represented and a good balance of both a and b list characters. For just the 13 regular figure spots (just the 12 regular monthly figures plus the 1 sub exclusive--I dealt with oversize, quarterly and con figures separately) the yearly breakdown/recipe basically went like this:

1 Heroic Warrior (vintage figure)
1 Evil Warrior (vintage figure)
1 Horde member (2 of those years would have gone to the 2 remaining standard vintage figures, 1 would have gone to Entraptra and 1 would have gone to a Filmation Horde character).
1 Snake Man (after you do the last 3 remaining vintage snake figures this category would go either wild card or would go to characters like the Snake Goddess).
1 A-list vintage POP character
1 B-list vintage POP character
1 Galactic Protector (vintage)
1 Space Mutant (vintage)
1 Filmation character from the He-Man cartoon
1 Filmation character from the She-Ra cartoon
1 MYP character
2 Wild Card spots - ideally for mini comic, concept, jetlag or other miscellaneous characters

I'd set up my formula this way so each year between 2013-2016 would feel somewhat equally strong and diverse. I know a lot of people want all of their favorite faction right away, but honestly if Mattel was to do that this line would be even more likely to die off quickly. In my opinion the best way to keep the line going year after year so that every body can get their favorite factions complete is to try to keep things more balanced so that you never reach a point where you've fully completed one part of the collection (ie vintage Masters) but are still years away from completing a still wanted but typically less demanded faction (ie New Adventures). With this road map I created I felt like character selection would stay really strong all the way through 2016. Come 2017 there would have been a bit of a drop off as far as character selection is concerned since you'd be all out of vintage Horde and Snake Men and the only remaining POP would be a couple of B-listers. But still you'd have enough vintage Masters to either hurry up and wrap up all the Vintage figures in 2017 or to keep spacing them out with more Filmation, NA, mini comic, etc characters all the way through 2019 or 2020.

It could be coincidence but so far with 8 of the regular monthly figures and the sub exclusive revealed 2013 is matching up exactly with my road map. If it sticks to my prediction then that means we'll see the following for the 4 yet to be revealed 2013 monthly spots:

Of course the real test would have been to see if 2014 would have matched up too, but now that subs are down and 2014 has broken off from the original plan to be all heavy hitters that could end up tossing out my entire road map predictions.

With the talk regarding NYTF 2013 reveals, and the potential surprises (beasts, vehicles, multi-packs, add-on subs, etc.), and the overall talk of the line wrapping up (in terms of the core figures)...I tried to come up with a schedule that attempted to hit as many requested figures as possible. I set up 2014-2016 to have the exact same skus as 2013 (12 monthly, 4 quarterly items, and a sub exclusive). I included a 6-figure add-on sub (Filmation), a SDCC item, and a traveling exclusive. This is what I came up with...

I love that you have Shezar and Queen Zal (yay!!!) and Dakkon and Lodar too, but where's Shokoti? I don't see her anywhere, and she's like the top one-shot Filmation character who should be in 2013 or 2014. Are my eyes failing? Man, if we got Chef Allen and not Shokoti I think the resulting nerd rage would be justifiably nuclear!

Also, I still hope we'll see Illumina and Sleetah, and that Prahvus and Veena will turn up sooner than 2016.

There are others, but I'd be feeling great if we got all of these on my wishlist.
Don't much care what month they come out, though I'll pick my favorites for my birthday month of August, and those would probably be Two-Badd, Battle Ram, Stridor and Veena.

has TG stated that oversized figures (beasts--multi-packs) may be gone now too? Thought I had seen that somewhere where we may only get basic figures starting 2014, but not sure..

TBH, there aren't many beasts left that I care for (personally).
I'm all set with the Giants.
The only "beasts" I would like to get would be Molkrum, Sleetah (with Illumina), and Mer-Man's fishy steed. (Battle Lion would be an honorable mention but I'm all set with any more horses)

TBH, there aren't many beasts left that I care for (personally).
I'm all set with the Giants.
The only "beasts" I would like to get would be Molkrum, Sleetah (with Illumina), and Mer-Man's fishy steed. (Battle Lion would be an honorable mention but I'm all set with any more horses)

I like the list. Better add Shokoti. I agree that 2016 looks a little strange, as I dont recognize many of the names, but that does not mean I would not want those figures, if done well and they have an interesting design.

has TG stated that oversized figures (beasts--multi-packs) may be gone now too? Thought I had seen that somewhere where we may only get basic figures starting 2014, but not sure..

I am pretty sure that it's been said the beasts, etc will take a lower priority. So I'm guessing they will not be a part of the new 2014 line up. I for one have lots of beasts, giants, and oversized on my want list still so I hope we find a way to get these back into the mix (although I'm not keeping my hopes up too much). I'm sure somehow they will find a way to put out the $30 oversized guys like Modulok, and maybe one really demanded beast like Stridor, but getting other beasts like Clawdeen, Bianotops, or Battle Lion or huge oversized items like the MYP giants into this line is starting to feel a lot less likely to me. It's a shame as I was really looking forward to those too.

I like the list. Better add Shokoti. I agree that 2016 looks a little strange, as I dont recognize many of the names, but that does not mean I would not want those figures, if done well and they have an interesting design.

And i didn't see Loo-Kee or the Twiggets which i would want them and Shokoti over several of the others.

I am pretty sure that it's been said the beasts, etc will take a lower priority. So I'm guessing they will not be a part of the new 2014 line up. I for one have lots of beasts, giants, and oversized on my want list still so I hope we find a way to get these back into the mix (although I'm not keeping my hopes up too much). I'm sure somehow they will find a way to put out the $30 oversized guys like Modulok, and maybe one really demanded beast like Stridor, but getting other beasts like Clawdeen, Bianotops, or Battle Lion or huge oversized items like the MYP giants into this line is starting to feel a lot less likely to me. It's a shame as I was really looking forward to those too.

Yeah, either way im going to be nervous about reveals on Matty Palooza SDCC 2013. I believe were going to get a good 2014 line up, but part of me wonders if 2013 could be it

I've done this before on a different, similar thread... but here goes again, because it's fun.
Oh, and to note- my guess is that NYTF is going to reveal outside-the-sub, quarterly TWO-PACKS... which will be Mattel's way to get more Filmation, Jetlag, etc characters as well as fan-demanded variants/repaints.

And that's where I stop... I really can't imagine there being a full-fledged subscription being offered past 2015. There are some that didn't make the cut, but I doubt a year of Vizar, Melog, Chef Allen, etc. being enough to keep people's interest up.

I like the list. Better add Shokoti. I agree that 2016 looks a little strange, as I dont recognize many of the names, but that does not mean I would not want those figures, if done well and they have an interesting design.

Whoops! I totally thought I had Shokoti in there. In that case, I'd switch her in for Batros, then place Batros for Huntara, then place Huntara for Nepthu. Sorry Nepthu. You're outta there! Either that or the Melaktha/Masque 2-pack becomes a 3-pack to include Shokoti, and then Nepthu is back in.

It seems like people want to finish off those vintage lines as fast as possible, so that's why the first three years focus mostly on MOTU, PoP, and NA. I sprinkled in a couple obscure characters or 200X requests when I could. Since the major "core" characters are covered from 2013-2015, the 2016 list mostly has a lot of the more obscure characters people requested; Filmation, 200X, mini-comics, jet lag, international comics, etc. I call it, the "die-hard year".

LooKee I missed too...hmmmm. Maybe he can be a non-sub item, or a con exclusive. He's too small to be packed alone, but having him with a regular figure would make it cost more than a monthly charge. So, tossing him in would have to be tricky. I suggested that on the 30th anniversary of Princess of Power (2015), that the sub would include an addition charge, up from, for the mini-figure of LooKee. Then, on month between January and November, subscribers would randomly get LooKee as part of their shipment. You wouldn't know when he'd come, so you'd have to LOOK for him.

Maybe the Twiggets could be a non-sub exclusive pack. I don't really see that many requests for them, so that is why I didn't have them in my list.

I would add Illumina and Sleetah, but it seems like those characters will never get made. If we ever did see them, I think it should be as a Power-Con exclusive 2-pack.

Stridor is something I NEED before the line ends. I suggested that Night Stalker could be a secondary SDCC exclusive, and then a repaint of Stridor on Mattycollector the following month. One sculpt, two beasts.

Great list, Zodac74! I like a lot of your 2-pack combinations. The only thing I's say may not happen is the variants of Teela and Evil-Lyn 3.0. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just think Mattel would shoot for new characters rather than a 3rd variant of a character, other than He-Man and Skeletor. Personally, I'd also love to see a New Adventures Sorceress, but I doubt we'll see that. However...if 2015 is the year of the new movie, then maybe that WOULD be enough for a full fledged subscription in 2016, and maybe beyond that. There would still be plenty of characters to make; obscure or new, but plenty.

I also wanted to throw in Evil Robot and Crystoll. I just couldn't find a place for them.